How We’re Bringing the New Alterium Album to the World: Promotion, Festivals & Touring 🚐
- 11 hours ago
- 9 min read
In the first part of this series, I took you behind the scenes of the musical production of our new Alterium album, from songwriting and preproduction to recording, mixing and mastering.
In the second part, we explored everything that gives the album its visual identity, including the artwork, photoshoots and music videos.
At that point, the music is ready and the visual world surrounding it has taken shape. From the outside, it might seem as though the hardest part is finally over.
In reality, this is where another enormous challenge begins.
Creating an album is only one part of the journey. The next step is making sure that people actually discover it, hear it and have the opportunity to experience the music live.
This final part of the series is about the work that happens after the creative process. It is about promotion, festivals, touring, merchandise and the financial reality behind taking music on the road.
Some of this work remains almost invisible to the audience. Some of the numbers may be surprising. But all of it plays a crucial role in determining whether an independent band can continue creating music.
1. Promotion: The Part Nobody Sees 📱
A common misconception is that once the album is finished, the work is over. In reality, that is when a whole new kind of work begins.
Months before the release, we start preparing the promotional campaign. This includes press releases, interviews and magazine features. We also need to produce content for social media, which means planning, filming and editing videos, taking photos and adapting everything for different platforms.
Then there are advertising campaigns, newsletters, release announcements and all the additional content needed to keep people informed and interested.
Nowadays, making music is only one part of being in a band. Promoting it has become just as important.
The funny thing is that I personally handle most of these tasks myself.
I edit videos, write captions, prepare newsletters, answer emails, organise content calendars, upload videos, coordinate releases and manage a large part of our social media presence.
From a purely financial point of view, you could almost describe this work as “free” because we are not paying an external agency to do it. In reality, it is anything but free.
It is a full-time job on top of everything else, and it can be incredibly demanding. Sometimes I spend almost as much time sitting behind my computer as I do singing, writing music or preparing for performances.
Every post has to be planned. Every video needs to be edited. Every release needs the correct information, artwork, links and timing. Messages and emails need answers, interviews need to be coordinated and promotional material has to be delivered to the right people.
Most listeners will never see how many hours disappear into these tasks, but without them even the best album can struggle to reach an audience.
Record labels usually take care of several important parts of the release. Besides manufacturing physical releases and distributing the album both digitally and physically, they generally handle the promotional campaign aimed at the music press. They may also organise larger advertising campaigns.
Even then, I often run additional promotional activities in parallel because I want to make sure that every release receives the visibility it deserves.
Promotion budgets vary enormously from one campaign to another.
There is no standard amount. The final budget depends on the label, the size of the release, the markets you want to reach and how much you decide to invest in advertising.
A promotional campaign can cost only a few hundred euros or it can require many thousands. This makes promotion one of the most unpredictable expenses connected to an album release.
2. Live Shows: Bringing the Album to Life 🚐
An essential part of promoting an album is taking the music on the road.
For Alterium, live shows have proven to be one of the most powerful ways of making people fall in love with our music.
There is something special about seeing a band perform in person. The energy of the musicians, the sound in the room and the connection between the band and the audience simply cannot be replicated through Spotify or YouTube.
Unfortunately, being a relatively young band also means that the performance fees we receive do not always cover the actual cost of playing those shows.
Festivals: The Costs Behind a Single Show 🎪
When we play a festival, the expenses begin long before we step onto the stage.
Depending on the location, we either need to book flights or rent a van with nine seats. If we travel by van, we also have to pay for fuel and motorway tolls.
Then there are hotels, food, customs fees or visas when required, and the crew members we need in order to perform the show professionally.
Whenever possible, we always try to travel with at least our sound engineer.
That means paying for one additional person’s travel, accommodation and meals, as well as their daily fee, which usually ranges between €150 and €300.
Having our own sound engineer can make an enormous difference. Every venue and festival stage is different, and working with someone who already knows our songs and understands how we want the band to sound gives us far more consistency.
If possible, we also bring a dedicated driver.
Believe me, driving for eight to ten hours before performing a concert is anything but relaxing. It can be physically exhausting and also creates obvious safety concerns after the show, when everyone is tired.
Our driver also helps us as a stage technician during the concert. This adds another daily cost of between €150 and €300.
Ideally, we would also bring someone specifically responsible for selling merchandise.
Standing at a merchandise booth and talking for hours inside a noisy venue is not exactly the best preparation for my voice before a concert. Having someone who can handle the booth properly makes a huge difference.
A merchandise seller usually receives either a fixed daily fee of around €150 to €200 or a percentage of the sales.
And this does not even include the cost of producing the merchandise itself.
We have to pay for the artwork, printing and manufacturing long before we sell a single shirt, CD or vinyl record.
That means investing money without knowing how much merchandise will actually be sold. Unfortunately, sales are sometimes much lower than we hoped.
When everything goes well, the festival fee covers most or all of the expenses connected to the performance.
Quite often, however, it does not.
Do not get me wrong. Considering how young Alterium still is, we feel incredibly fortunate to have already performed at so many festivals.
But from a financial perspective, every appearance can become a delicate balancing act.
In many cases, merchandise sales are what keep us afloat.
So, if you have ever wondered whether buying a shirt or a CD really helps your favourite band, the answer is yes. It genuinely makes a difference.
3. Touring: The Reality of Pay-to-Play
Tours are a completely different story.
Unfortunately, we are not yet in a position where we regularly receive offers that make touring financially sustainable. Here is a little secret that everyone working inside the music business already knows:
Pay-to-play exists.
Buy-ons exist.
Many smaller bands receive offers to join major European tours, but only if they pay a substantial amount of money in advance. Sometimes that payment contributes to the cost of the tour bus and the overall production. In other cases, it simply becomes part of the headliner’s income.
You might be surprised by how many mid-sized established bands shift a significant part of their touring expenses onto their opening acts.
The opening band is effectively helping to finance the tour while also covering many of its own costs.
To make matters worse, it is not unusual for the headline package to refuse to share certain parts of the backline, such as the drum kit, or members of the crew.
This means that the support band may have to transport and pay for even more equipment and additional personnel.
And here is the really important part:
The support band usually receives no share of the ticket income.
That is why I often explain that, although I am incredibly happy whenever someone buys a ticket to see us perform, I generally do not earn anything from the ticket itself. The venue, the promoter and the touring package divide that income.
If you truly want to support us directly, buying a CD, a vinyl record or a shirt from our merchandise stand has a much greater impact. Merchandise sales are often the only way we can recover at least part of the money we invested simply to participate in the tour.
4. Real Tour Offers We Have Received 💶
Without naming any bands, I would like to share two real offers that Alterium has received recently.
The first offer was for a European tour lasting two weeks as the opening band.
The tour bus and crew were included, but our participation would have cost us €21,000.
The venues had an average capacity of around 400 people.
The second offer was for a European tour lasting six weeks as a special guest. The cost was €35,000, including the tour bus. In addition to that amount, we would have needed between €6,000 and €8,000 to cover our own crew. At the very least, we would have required a sound engineer and someone to manage the merchandise.
The venues on that tour had an average capacity of around 300 people.
This is exactly why you have not seen Alterium joining a long European tour yet. Quite simply, it is not financially sustainable for us.
With venues of that size, the expected merchandise sales would realistically cover only around 35 to 40 percent of the total investment. We would return home with a massive debt.
An offer can look incredibly exciting from the outside. Being invited to join an established band on tour sounds like an enormous opportunity. But once you calculate the actual cost, expected merchandise income, crew expenses and loss of regular work, the reality can look very different.
5. Our Own Touring Experience
To give you a real example, let us talk about the tour we completed last year. In that case, we did not have to pay a buy-on fee. However, we still had to cover all of our own expenses.
This included renting the van and travelling with a crew of three people. Once you include their fees, travel, accommodation and food, it is easy to see how quickly the costs become significant.
Unfortunately, the first part of the tour in Spain caused us a financial loss.
The Spanish audiences were absolutely incredible and we had an amazing time performing for them.
However, merchandise sales were far below our expectations, which had a major effect on the overall budget.
The second part of the tour went much better. It included shows in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany. If the concerts in Spain had generated similar merchandise sales, we probably would have returned home with a small profit.
Instead, we finished the tour slightly in the red.
For me personally, there is another important factor to consider. Every day I spend on tour is a day when I cannot work as a veterinarian. Since I am self-employed, this also means losing my normal income for the entire time I am away.
Touring therefore does not only involve the direct expenses paid by the band. It can also mean giving up the income we would normally earn through our regular professions.
6. Why We Do Not Tour More Often
Believe me, we would love to spend most of the year on the road.
We would love to perform in more countries, visit more cities and meet many more of you in person.
But the economic reality often makes that impossible.
The situation I have described is not unique to Alterium. It is the reality faced by the vast majority of opening bands you see on European tours.
So, rather than asking why we are not touring more often, come and see us at the festivals we play. Festivals are generally much more sustainable for bands at our level.
And if you can, visit the merchandise stand and pick up a shirt, a CD or a vinyl record.
That simple gesture genuinely helps to make the next concert, the next tour and ultimately the next album possible.
I will not hide the fact that this situation can be incredibly frustrating.
It is frustrating for us, but also for many other talented bands who are trying to build a career and make a living through music.
What makes it even more frustrating is seeing the same expensive tour slots repeatedly purchased by bands that are fortunate enough to finance their musical careers through other sources of income.
Unfortunately, that is not our situation.
The Road Ahead ⚔️
Despite everything, I remain optimistic.
The difficulties are real, but so is the passion that keeps us moving forward.
Every album, video and concert exists because many different pieces come together. There is the work of the band, the crew, artists, photographers, video directors, labels, promoters and many other people behind the scenes.
There is also the support of the listeners.
Streaming the music, sharing a video, attending a festival, buying a physical album or choosing something from the merchandise stand may seem like a small action.
For an independent band, it can make a genuine difference.
I truly hope that sooner or later the right touring opportunity will come along. It needs to be an opportunity that allows us to perform at our best without returning home with an impossible financial burden.
When that moment arrives, I hope we will finally be able to embark on a proper tour and meet many more of you around the world. Until then, we will continue writing, recording, creating, promoting and fighting to bring this music to life.
Thank you for being part of that journey.
Without you, none of it would be possible. ⚔️✨
